What are the differences between national labs and industry?
Many PhDs go on to fulfilling careers at various national labs. Clicking on the links below will connect you with the jobs/internships pages of each lab.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) has 27 institutes and centers
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) labs:
- Communications Technology Laboratory (CTL)
- Engineering Laboratory (EL)
- Information Technology Laboratory (ITL)
- NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR)
- Material Measurement Laboratory (MML)
- Physical Measurement Laboratory (PML)
US Department of Energy National Labs (Federal and Non-Federal):
- Ames Laboratory (Iowa State) materials and energy solutions
- Argonne National Laboratory (also comprises New Brunswick Laboratory)
- Brookhaven National Laboratory
- Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
- Idaho National Laboratory
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- National Energy Technology Laboratory
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory
- Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE, ORAU)
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
- Radiological and Environmental Sciences Laboratory
- Sandia National Laboratory
- Savannah River National Laboratory
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (Stanford)
- Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
Search for other government jobs at usajobs.gov. Please note that these job postings are usually only open for 3-5 days so it is imperative that you have a profile set up and materials ready ahead of time. Networking to learn of impending openings is also highly valuable.
Mentors with Relevant Experience
Careers Beyond Academia has a number of mentors eager to speak with PhD students and postdocs. Please contact our office at gradcareers@cornell.edu to connect with the mentor that aligns with your interests!
Abby Goldman PhD'18 Institute for Defense Analysis
Austin Han PhD'24 Postdoc at Argonne National Lab
Raga Krishnakumar PhD'10, Technical staff scientist, computational and systems biology, Sandia National Labs
Jocienne Nelson MS'17 PhD'20, now Development engineer at First Solar
Alexander Ruyack '13 MEng '17 PhD'19, R&D Electronics engineer, Sandia National Labs
Federally Funded Research Labs
The National Science Foundation maintains a master list of all federally funded R&D centers (FFRDCs). They are administered by industrial firms, nonprofit institutions and universities and colleges, including university consortia. Together they conduct various activities in research and development laboratories, study and analysis centers, and systems engineering and integration centers in the following locations:
Arizona
California
Colorado
District of Columbia
Idaho
Illinois
Iowa
Maryland
Massachusetts
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
Washington
Apply for Research Funding
Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program awards at DOE labs
(U.S. grad students): to pursue part of your thesis research at a DOE laboratory/facility with access to the expertise, resources, and capabilities available at the DOE laboratories/facilities. Work in collaboration with a DOE laboratory scientist from any of the participating DOE national laboratories/facilities for 3 -12 consecutive months. There are many collaborators listed who are ready to work with you on a SCGF project.
Cornell alumni who have received this fellowship in the past include:
Lara Backer (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering) 2016
Peter Beaucage (Materials Science and Engineering) 2016
Michael Coletta (Applied Physics) 2023
Nicholas Eggert (Physics) 2010
Konrad (Radzieszewski) Hedderick PhD'23 (Materials Science and Engineering) 2021
Rachel Hestrin PhD'18 (Soil and Crop Sciences) 2016
Brennan Hyden PhD'23 (Plant Breeding) 2020
Jason Kahn PhD'14 (Biological Engineering) 2012
Zepyoor Khechadoorian (Physics) 2021
Nicholas Kincaid (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering) 2022
William Lou PhD'20 (Physics) 2015
Aileen Luo (Materials Science and Engineering) 2022
Evan MacQuarrie PhD'17 (Physics) 2012
Virginia McGhee (Chemistry & Chemical Biology) 2023
Alex Melnick (Physics) 2010
Amnon Ortoll-Bloch PhD'20 (Chemistry and Chemical Biology) 2017
Michael Savastio PhD'15 (Physics) 2014
Liana Shpani (Physics) 2023
Matthew Signorelli (Physics) 2022
David Sweigart PhD'20 (Physics) 2014
Nidong Wang (Physics) 2022
Read the 2023 announcement.
Risk and Compliance Resources
Campus Safety, Health, and Environmental Management Association (CSHEMA has an annual meeting in the summer; please request to be added to their discussion forum)
Cornell's Laboratory Safety Manual and Chemical Hygiene Plan offers links to training, obligations of the PI or lab manager and examples of Standard Operating Procedures.
Deloitte's Risk Management Framework for Federal Agencies
DIA-for those interested in regulatory affairs
Environmental Health and Safety Association of New York, Inc. (SEHSA)
Biotech Primer's compendium of drug development acronyms
FDA's acronym database
FDA GUIDEBOOK compiled by the New York State Science & Technology Law Center
FDA's Internship and Fellowship opportunity listing
Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Research Integrity has very interesting real misconduct case studies and an interactive video where you can role-play to affect the outcome based on which decisions you make in that character role
MedTech's regulatory resources
National Biosafety & Biocontainment Program (NIH)
Price Waterhouse Cooper's Governance, Risk and Compliance consulting services
Strategy& helps life sciences clients who need to hire those with more interdisciplinary academic training
TechnologyEd offers online courses in the regulatory environment and more
Thompson Reuters Governance Risk & Compliance solutions
US Department of State Jobs in ThinkTanks includes a listing of all US think tank organizations
Watson School of Engineering & Applied Science, Binghamton University Lean Six Sigma Greenbelt Training